\ 


QTie  Suicide 
of  the 

Horseshoe  Fall 


THE  SUICIDE  OF 
THE  HORSESHOE  FALL 


JOHN  LYELL  HARPER 

Member 

American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers 
American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers 
American  Electro  Chemical  Society 
Fellow 

American  Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers 


John  Lyell  Harper 


John  Lyell  Harper,  Vice-President  and  Chief 
Engineer  of  The  Niagara  Falls  Power  Company, 
died  at  the  Memorial  Hospital,  Niagara  Falls, 
New  York,  November  28,  1924. 

Recognized  by  the  engineering  world  as  one  of 
its  great  geniuses,  Mr.  Harper  occupied  a  supreme 
place  in  the  field  of  water-power  development. 

His  association  with  the  Niagara-power  industry 
be^an  in  1902  when  he  joined  the  organization  of 
the  Niagara  Falls  Hydraulic  &  Manufacturing 
Company  as  assistant  to  Wallace  C.  Johnson, 
engineer.  From  that  time  until  he  ceased  to  live, 
the  life  of  John  Lyell  Harper  is  the  romantic  story 
of  the  development  of  Niagara  power.  The  in- 
dividual was  merged  into  the  institution  with 
which  he  will  always  be  united  in  the  minds  and 
memories  of  his  myriad  friends. 

His  imagination  and  foresight  were  astonishing. 
He  seemed  always  to  be  ready  when  the  time 
came  for  action.  It  is  some  slight  consolation  to 
those  who  shared  his  labors  that  he  lived  to  see 
the  completion  of  the  latest  power  plants,  for  they 
are  the  developed  children  of  his  master  mind. 

The  most  famous  power  development  in  the 
world,  from  both  the  standpoint  of  its  engineering 
and  of  the  service  it  renders  to  humanity,  is 
situated  in  the  gorge  below  the  Falls  of  Niagara. 
It  stands  as  a  monument  to  the  genius  of  John 
Lyell  Harper. 


John  Lyell  Harper 
1873  -  1924 


FOR  generations  the  Greater  Fall  at  Niagara  with  its 
horseshoe  form,  set  in  a  rainbow  of  colors,  has 
greeted  the  thousands  of  bridal  couples,  extending 
to  them  the  felicitations  of  success  and  happiness  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  most  important  phase  of  their  life. 
Now,  it  is  rapidly  and  definitely  departing  from  the  em- 
blem of  good  luck,  and  taking  on  a  new  form,  lacking 
both  in  aesthetic  beauty  and  munificent  prophecy. 

The  progressive  disease  which  is  destroying  the  beauty 
of  the  Horseshoe  Fall  has  been  often  improperly  diagnosed. 
The  results  and  effects  of  this  disease  are  apparent  to  all, 
but  the  would-be  doctors  have  allowed  their  passion  for 
sensationalism  and  personal  profit  to  hide  from  their  eyes 
all  the  causes  of  trouble  except  those  which  they  desired 
to  emphasize. 

Within  the  memory  of  our  older  generation  of  observers  it 
is  apparent  that  where  the  sides  and  heels  of  the  Horseshoe 
Fall  were  in  the  past  well  covered  with  water,  they  are  now 
depleted  to  mere  shadows  of  their  original  beauty,  and  the 
main  volume  of  water  is  passing  over  the  cliff  at  the  toe  of 
the  horseshoe.  These  evil  results  have  been  imputed 
wholly  to  the  diversions  of  water  from  the  river,  whereas, 
under  a  true  diagnosis,  they  are  due  almost  entirely  to 
another  cause. 

Many  unqualified  practitioners  have  given  the  Falls  ab- 
sent treatment,  based  on  legendary  knowledge  and  distorted 
data.  These  have,  almost  universally,  demanded  the 
cessation  of  diversion.  Real  physicians,  having  the  cour- 
age of  their  convictions,  and  taking  the  personal  trouble  to 
determine  the  real  conditions  of  the  Horseshoe  Fall,  have 
determined  that  the  depletion  of  the  cascade  on  the  sides  of 
the  horseshoe  is  almost  entirely  due  to  the  gathering  of  a 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/suicideofhorseshOOharp 


greater  volume  of  water  into  the  center  of  the  river.  This 
is  caused  by  the  more  rapid  deepening  of  the  river  at  that 
place,  and  following  the  ordinary  laws  of  nature,  is  produc- 
ing a  still  more  rapid  erosion  at  that  point. 

An  entire  cessation  of  diversions  from  the  river  would 
not  retard  the  self  destruction  of  the  horseshoe  form,  but 
would  rather  tend  to  accelerate  it.  Indeed,  no  negative 
action  by  any  Government  or  People  can  preserve  the 
horseshoe,  but  positive  action  must  be  taken  with  courage, 
and  intelligence,  and  as  soon  as  possible,  so  that  the  greatest 
scenic  spectacle  of  the  United  States  may  not  be  allowed  to 
commit  suicide. 

The  "American,"  or  lesser  fall,  carries  only  slightly 
more  than  five  per  cent,  of  the  total  discharge  of  the  Niagara 
River,  and  yet,  it  forms  at  least  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the 
total  scenic  spectacle. 

In  these  days,  when  engineers  do  not  shrink  from  under- 
taking what  has  seemed  in  the  past  to  be  impossible,  it 
should  be  the  policy  of  those  controlling  the  Falls  at  Niagara 
to  have  constructed  in  the  bed  of  the  river,  above  the 
Horseshoe  Fall,  invisible  current  deflectors  which  would 
make  impossible  the  gathering  of  the  whole  river  into  a 
deep  narrow  gorge,  and  would  again  deflect  its  water  over 
the  sides  and  heels  of  a  reestablished  horseshoe,  not  only 
improving  the  present  spectacle,  but  causing  the  whole 
contour  of  the  fall  to  wear  uniformly,  so  that  coming  gener- 
ations in  viewing  its  beauty  may  also  have  before  their 
eyes,  the  emblem  of  good  luck. 

The  progress  toward  the  destruction  of  the  horseshoe 
form  of  the  fall  is  shown  in  an  illustration,  upon  which  is 
shown  the  location  of  the  crest  of  the  fall,  as  it  existed  in 
the  years  indicated.    From  actual  observations  made 


during  the  past  ten  years,  it  is  known  that  the  crest  is  re- 
ceding at  the  point  of  greatest  erosion  at  the  rate  of  ap- 
proximately eight  feet  per  year,  while  on  the  sides  and  heels 
almost  no  recession  is  noted. 

Flying  a  banner  with  the  slogan  "Save  Niagara,"  many 
good  citizens  have  expended  a  great  deal  of  energy  in 
"Preserving  the  beauty  of  Niagara  Falls,"  either  for  aesthe- 
tic enjoyment,  or  possibly  from  a  desire  not  to  diminish 
the  sale  of  coal,  and  have  bent  their  efforts  toward  the 
adoption  of  "do-nothing"  tactics.  The  only  result  has 
been  to  deprive  the  citizens  of  the  whole  country  of  the 
benefit  of  the  proper  and  reasonable  development  of  one  of 
their  principal  resources,  to  the  detriment  of  scientific 
research  and  accomplishment.  This  result  has,  within  the 
last  year,  been  brought  forcibly  to  our  attention  by  the 
shutting  off  of  importation  from  foreign  countries  of  commo- 
dities and  manufactures,  which  could  and  should  have 
been  manufactured  by  the  resources  at  our  own  command. 

A  comparison  of  the  American  Fall  and  its  small  over- 
flow, with  the  Horseshoe  Fall  and  its  deep  overflow,  may 
well  be  made  by  all  observers,  and  judgment  given  as  to 
whether  the  difference  in  aesthetic  value  of  the  two  spec- 
tacles warrants  the  constant  expenditure  of  energy  amount- 
ing to  at  least  two  million  horsepower,  the  replacing  of 
which,  in  our  economic  life,  requires  the  burning  of  one 
hundred  million  dollars'  worth  of  coal  per  year.  As  the 
Falls  are  viewed  by  approximately  one  million  people  in 
that  time,  the  monetary  value  of  the  difference  in  spectacle 
to  each  person  would  be  one  hundred  dollars  per  look. 

There  are  few  homes  in  the  United  States  in  which  life 
is  not  now  made  brighter  and  happier  by  the  use  of  mater- 
ials and  commodities  already  made  available  by  the  devel- 


opment  of  ten  per  cent,  of  the  potential  energy  of  Niagara, 
and  is  it  not  well  to  consider  at  this  time  the  greater  bene- 
fits to  be  derived, — not  only  by  each  individual  citizen, 
but  by  the  whole  nation  through  the  possibility  of  develop- 
ment and  manufacture  of  the  elements  necessary  for  our 
national  protection,  which  could  be  made  available  by  the 
commercial  utilization  of  two  million  horsepower  now 
expended  for  difference  in  aesthetic  spectacle? 

The  American  Fall  with  its  outflow  of  five  per  cent, 
of  the  volume  of  the  river  and  one  thousand  feet  of  crest 
can  be  maintained  exactly  as  it  is  now.  Thirty-five  per 
cent,  of  the  outflow  of  the  river  can  be  properly  distrib- 
uted over  the  three  thousand  feet  of  crest  of  the  Horse- 
shoe Fall,  covering  it  with  a  cascade  more  than  twice  as  deep 
as  that  of  the  present  American  Fall,  and  with  the  much 
smaller  amount  of  water  produce  a  scenic  effect  equal  in 
grandeur  and  greater  in  extent  than  the  present  one.  This 
would,  at  the  same  time,  arrest  the  destruction  of  the 
beauty  of  the  horseshoe  shape  which  is  now  daily  disappear- 
ing under  the  eroding  forces  of  the  misdirected  torrents, 
and  the  loving  and  courageous  hand  of  direction  replace  the 
wastefulness  and  destruction  which  must  follow  negligence 
and  inaction. 


NIAGARA  PRINTING  CO.,  INC. 


